From 3DS Achievements to Virtual Babies - News Roundup 18th June 2010

3DS Rumours: Installs and Achievements?

The 3DS is already shaping up to be a serious piece of kit with more features than most Swiss army knives... but according to the latest rumours, Nintendo may still be holding a few choice details back.

Nikkei, a Japanese financial paper (via andriasang), has reported that the 3DS can copy games from its cartridge to internal memory, thus reducing the need for cartridge-swapping. This may sound ridiculously far-fetched considering the rampant piracy the DS is facing at the moment- and will doubtlessly require some fairly sophisticated DRM - but I wouldn't discount this rumour just yet. Nikkei are partly responsible for outing the 3DS in the first place and forcing Ninty to show their hand to the rest of the world... so it's worth listening to what they have to say.

The second rumour comes straight from EA's Ryan Stradling, who mentions in an official Nintendo interview that "exchanging achievements" will be an important part of EA's 3DS titles. Whilst it's more likely that this comment alludes to game-specific challenges and Hi-Scores that are shared between friends (in order to spark a little friendly competition), this has naturally sparked the internet into a frenzy of 3DS achievement speculation. Frankly, I actually enjoy playing games without achievements and trophies on the DS and Wii. [andriasang; Nintendo]

Sony Shooter Revealed; Set to Stun!

Sony has revealed some pictures of the Shooter, an attachment for the Move controller that essentially turns it into a handgun. Basically, it's a Wii Zapper. Whilst the Shooter appears to be a solid and attractive piece of kit, many are arguing that it's a blatant cynical money-spinner that wouldn't have been necessary if the Move had been designed with a little more care.

But frankly, when you get to wield an awesome retro phaser gun, who cares? [Kotaku]

Rare: No Kinect Lag! Honestly!

Kinect Sports, Rare's absolutely unsurprising minigame collection has recently come under attack from independent sources who claim to have witnessed a substantial amount of lag and latency issues. However, Rare has been quick to deny these rumours in an interview with Eurogamer (who were one of the first to cry "lag!").

"Lag is not an issue. As with any prototype stuff, of course it was in the past. That's to be expected. Where we're at now, not at all. Yes, we've done a lot work to make sure it wasn't a problem, but when you've got something that's copying what you're doing you can't have a lot of lag." - Nick Burton, Executive Producer of Technology and Communications

As it stands, Rare has announced that Kinect Sports operates on a 150 millisecond delay that doesn't include any inherent TV lag. It's a fairly small figure, but we'll need to grab some hands-on time to be sure that it doesn't interfere with the experience. Gamescom, anyone? [Eurogamer]

Attack of the Shovelware: Babysitting Mama Controller Is a Baby

Of course, E3 isn't just about huge announcements and great games. Unfortunately it's also a great place to witness the next generation of godawful shovelware. We searched high and low for the most ridiculous (and hence our favourite) piece of shovelware this year, and luckily, it didn't take long to find. Say hello to the Babysitting Mama Controller bundle...

So... okay. Erm. Basically, you'll ram your Wiimoteinto a ghastly deformed voodoo doll... and subsequently attempt to cherish it. The plush doll actually acts as the peripheral, and you'll (I assume) need to rock it to sleep when the Wiimote's built-in speaker tells you to. Personally, I'm not quite sure that teaching small children to calm babies down by shoving a controller into them is necesarrily the best idea... and I give this product a single post-release day before we start seeing some seriously nasty Youtube videos. Sorry, I mean seriously hilarious Youtube videos.